Cardinal to Emanuel: Just what exactly are Chicago values?

posted at 8:41 am on July 31, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel insists that he won’t back down from his suggestion that Chick-fil-A doesn’t meet his standard of “Chicago values,” although his staff has tried to backpedal a little since. In a press conference yesterday, Emanuel sounded defiant as he defended “Chicago values”:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday he has no regrets about saying that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago’s values” because the company president opposes gay marriage.

“No. I don’t” regret it, the mayor said under questioning at an unrelated jobs announcement.

“And the simple reason is, when it comes to values, there’s a policy as it relates to gay marriage. The values of our city are ones that welcome and recognize that, and I will continue to fight for that.”

“Values that welcome”? To have any meaning at all, “welcome” means open to those who disagree with you. Tolerance means engaging with those whose religion or political beliefs differ. Engaging with only those who march in lockstep with your own agenda is actually the antithesis of “tolerance” and “welcoming.”

We’ll get back to that in a moment. First, a native Chicagoan who also happens to lead the Archdiocese of Chicago wrote an open letter to Emanuel asking for clarification on the meaning — and enforcement — of “Chicago values.” Francis Cardinal George called this “a defining moment” for civil unions, and not the kind related to marriage:

Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.” …

People who are not Christian or religious at all take for granted that marriage is the union of a man and a woman for the sake of family and, of its nature, for life. The laws of civilizations much older than ours assume this understanding of marriage. This is also what religious leaders of almost all faiths have taught throughout the ages. Jesus affirmed this understanding of marriage when he spoke of “two becoming one flesh” (Mt. 19: 4-6). Was Jesus a bigot? Could Jesus be accepted as a Chicagoan? Would Jesus be more “enlightened” if he had the privilege of living in our society? One is welcome to believe that, of course; but it should not become the official state religion, at least not in a land that still fancies itself free. Surely there must be a way to properly respect people who are gay or lesbian without using civil law to undermine the nature of marriage.

Surely we can find a way not to play off newly invented individual rights to “marriage” against constitutionally protected freedom of religious belief and religious practice. The State’s attempting to redefine marriage has become a defining moment not for marriage, which is what it is, but for our increasingly fragile “civil union” as citizens.

In my column for The Week today, I argue that Emanuel’s intolerance — selective intolerance, actually — bears a lot more resemblance to the intolerance of noted 20th-century authoritarian systems than to traditional American ideas of freedom:

The past two weeks have brought to light a truly disturbing political demonstration — and it has nothing to do with presidential elections or generic congressional ballots. At least three mayors in some of America’s largest cities, as well as plenty of other city officials, have publicly demanded political orthodoxy as a condition of doing business in their metropolises. Political correctness has transformed into a strange American version of fascism — over a chicken filet sandwich and an opinion about marriage that even our Democratic president officially held as recently as two months ago. …

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared that Chick-fil-A did not represent “Chicago values,” and suggested that Chick-fil-A invest its money elsewhere. Chicago, by the way, has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation among major cities, so it seems odd that its mayor would tell Chick-fil-A to take a hike for having the exact same position on marriage that Emanuel’s former boss — President Barack Obama — held the entire time Emanuel worked at the White House. Even more odd, at the same time Emanuel declared Chick-fil-A fast-fooda non grata, he rolled out the red carpet for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to have his acolytes patrol Chicago neighborhoods. Not only is Farrakhan a well-known anti-Semite, he also opposes same-sex marriage. In fact, Farrakhan publicly blasted Obama for flip-flopping on the issue in May.

Emanuel later backed down, but not one of the local alderman, who still demanded a pledge from Cathy to quit associating with groups that oppose gay marriage as a prerequisite for a business permit. A councilman in New York made a similar threat. San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee kept his attack on freedom of thought to Twitter, noting that the closest Chick-fil-A outlet was 40 miles away — and that the company shouldn’t try to get any closer.

People can certainly choose not to eat at Chick-fil-A if they don’t like Cathy’s views on same-sex marriage. That’s a free-market response to political activism, and comes from the liberty of individuals being able to choose for themselves the free associations that best fits their needs. When government demands loyalty to a political agenda rather than compliance with the law as a prerequisite for businesses to operate in their jurisdiction, that’s not freedom or a free market: it’s fascism, plain and simple, as well as extortion, which always goes hand in hand with fascism.

1. The right to vote implies the right to choose freely on every subject relevant to that vote.

2. The right to choose implies the right to receive information and hear arguments about that choice.

3. We cannot receive information and arguments about the choices we make in our democracy unless people are free to express themselves.

4. Therefore freedom of expression is essentially to democracy.

And so when an official seeks not only to regulate behavior but even opinion and expression, then that person is seeking to create a very real tyranny, to strike at democracy itself. And we should have absolutely no tolerance of that.

So yes, even if you support gay marriage—hell even if you are gay—get a sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. Because this isn’t about gay marriage anymore. This is about freedom of speech.

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“The recent slander against the Church and Pope Pius XII can be traced back to 1963 with Rolf Hochhuth’s play, “The Deputy.” In this play Hochhuth criticized Pius for being silent and portrayed his silence as cold indifference. Even though fiction, people took it as fact.

Pope Pius XII was a diplomat and not a radical preacher. He knew that he first needed to preserve Vatican neutrality so that Vatican City could be a refuge for war victims. The International Red Cross also remained neutral. Secondly, he knew how powerless he was against Hitler. Mussolini could quickly shut off electrical power to Vatican Radio during his broadcast (Lapide, p. 256). Finally the Nazis did not tolerate any protest and responded severely. As an example, the Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht in July 1942 protested in a pastoral letter against the Jewish persecutions in Holland. Immediately the Nazis rounded up as many Jews and Catholic non-Aryans as possible and deported them to death camps, including Blessed Edith Stein (Lapide, p. 246). Pius knew that every time he spoke out against Hitler, the Nazis could retaliate against the prisoners. His best attack against the Nazis was quiet diplomacy and behind-the-scenes action. According to The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (V8.01) under Pius XII, “Wishing to preserve Vatican neutrality, fearing reprisals, and realizing his impotence to stop the Holocaust, Pius nonetheless acted on an individual basis to save many Jews and others with church ransoms, documents, and asylum.”

My point is that for Pope Pius XII actions spoke louder than words…and his actions and the actions of other Catholic Religious and Catholic Laity saved many,many lives.

Today….that network through catholic charities (and other catholic organizations) is trying to get Catholics and other Christians out of the Middle East & parts of Africa, where they face certain death. The Church is using every resource at her disposal to support Coptics in Egypt.

Today….Pope Benedict XVI is fighting the Communist government in China who have persecuted Catholic Clergy and laity in China. There are two Catholic Churches in China, the state church and the real church. The Chinese Government has seized evangelical churches and made them into shopping malls….But our press doesn’t cover that.

The Bishops are preparing the flock for these political times…and Catholics are being kept informed of the plight of Christians worldwide..and many join with other christians to fund these efforts.

My, my, so it isn’t all about the “economy” after all. There is this little thing called freedom and the left has it- not the economy- as its prime target, but what would fiscal conservatives or the elitist GOP concern themselves with a little thing like that when there’s money to talk about.

Avgjo – I am sure the German people just didn’t wake up and support a man who murdered over 6M jews, gypsies, etc. In fact I know this to be the case.

It started like this – and we would do well recognize that whether it seems too outlandish or not, Obama has had all the trappings of a fascist politician since he started running – greek pillers, his own insignia, lower the seas, etc. That is how it is done. Axelrod does his job well.

I have at this time have zero opinion that Obama plans anything like that. But isn’t that what they thought in Italy, Germany, and Venezuala (today)?

I’ll tell you though, because I agree so heartily that his moves have the odor of fascism all around them, I’ve wondered from time to time if he thought he could count on the complicity of the US military, if he wouldn’t try a Hitleresque takeover and reign.

I haven’t forgotten that he started his campaign in the living room of a man that was said (by a US federal agent) to have promoted the murder of up to 25 million of his fellow citizens if they didn’t get with the socialist program. ‘Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.’

You all have it backwards. It’s not the guys in charge today that would be the murderers. They would be the victims. The murderers would be the backlash, the nationalists, the Christians. But only after they are goaded into a state of insanity. History repeating over and over again. Germany was driven insane by Rahm’s predecessors. South Africa was driven insane. Now it’s America’s turn.

Today….Pope Benedict XVI is fighting the Communist government in China who have persecuted Catholic Clergy and laity in China. There are two Catholic Churches in China, the state church and the real church. The Chinese Government has seized evangelical churches and made them into shopping malls….But our press doesn’t cover that.

workingclass artist on July 31, 2012 at 12:18 PM

My hubby went to China on business three years ago and knows very well about the plight of Catholics in China. Before he went, he consulted a priest in our diocese asking what he should do while there, inasmuch as he wouldn’t be able to attend Mass. He wasn’t about to go to the “official” communist China Catholic church, and he knew if he tried to seek out the real but very much underground Catholic church, he would be putting himself and those Catholic Chinese in grave danger. He did not attend any Mass while there.

It’s very worthy and priceless information that needs to be out there. Thank you for continuing to promote the truth.

PatriotGal2257 on July 31, 2012 at 12:36 PM

The Church has her problems…But she deals with them.

It’s a big Church…But she has been blessed recently with two strong Popes. Pope Benedict is the most learned theologian to sit in St. Peter’s chair in a long time & he’s a conservative reform Pope that the liberal faction does not like.

Yet…Many many Catholics are returning to church and he has found a way to offer refuge and communion to traditional Anglicans, much to the chagrin of the British. These new Clergy are breathing new life into the Church and so is their flock of New Catholics.
Renewal indeed.

The Church will survive the Priest scandal because she has enacted reforms & that generation of Priests are dying out.

Thank you, workingclass artist. Just to add a little more to your defense…

Happy Nomad on July 31, 2012 at 9:33 AM

I’m afraid you, like so many today, including many Catholics, are victims of anti-Catholic propagandists, starting with a little known German Protestant playwrite named Rolf Hochhuth, who wrote a work of fiction called The Deputy and which was widely publicized throughout the world by the Communists in 1963, in order to tarnish the reputation of Pope Pius XII due to his unwavering condemnation of Communism/Socialism/Nazism during his life.

As workingclass artist has shown, during the actual war and immediately after, Pope Pius XII was greatly praised for his efforts to fight against the Nazis.

And to those of you who throw out “Godwin’s Law” to shut down any comparisons to Nazi Germany, how do you deny the similarities that prompted Pope Pius XI, (with much help from his principal advisor on Nazism, Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII) to write the encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge to the German Church in 1937 that included these passages? (with my comments)

In your country, Venerable Brethren, voices are swelling into a chorus urging people to leave the Church, and among the leaders there is more than one whose official position is intended to create the impression that this infidelity to Christ the King constitutes a signal and meritorious act of loyalty to the modern State. (Or to the ‘values of Chicago’) Secret and open measures of intimidation, the threat of economic and civic disabilities, bear on the loyalty of certain classes of Catholic functionaries, (or Chic-fil-a presidents) a pressure which violates every human right and dignity.

…

The believer has an absolute right to profess his Faith and live according to its dictates. Laws which impede this profession and practice of Faith are against natural law. (can you say HHS mandate?)

…

We address a few paternal words to the young.

Thousands of voices ring into your ears a Gospel which has not been revealed by the Father of Heaven. Thousands of pens are wielded in the service of a Christianity, which is not of Christ. Press and wireless (Hollywood and music industry, etc) daily force on you productions hostile to the Faith and to the Church, impudently aggressive against whatever you should hold venerable and sacred.
…

For a few… Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The encyclical is quite long, but well worth the time.

Bonhoeffer’s “Confessing Church” in all practicality, split off from the Protestant Church in Germany because of the Nazi issue, which left it with plenty of questions as to what actually constitutes a church. Hitler was never fond of the Catholic Church, and a couple of the only protests against the Nazis came from Catholics, such as in Parsberg in Bavaria when Hitler wanted the crosses in the classrooms replaced with pictures of himself.

Clemens-August von Galen was the cardinal in Muenster, and only escaped being executed in Dachau because Hitler was afraid that if he did that, all of Westphalia would revolt. Cardinal Galen was a very outspoken critic of the Nazi regime, and inspiration to others (such as the “White Rose” group) who would resist the Nazification of Germany.

My hubby went to China on business three years ago and knows very well about the plight of Catholics in China. Before he went, he consulted a priest in our diocese asking what he should do while there, inasmuch as he wouldn’t be able to attend Mass. He wasn’t about to go to the “official” communist China Catholic church, and he knew if he tried to seek out the real but very much underground Catholic church, he would be putting himself and those Catholic Chinese in grave danger. He did not attend any Mass while there.

PatriotGal2257 on July 31, 2012 at 12:45 PM

One of my heroes is Cardinal Zen…pray for him & Chinese Catholics all the time.

They have courage and are doing now what the Irish did during the British persecution in Ireland. They meet in homes for mass and they conduct parish schools much like the Irish did with the Hedge Schools which kept Irish language,culture and Catholicism alive until the laws were lifted.

Freedom and free will to choose, and decide your own opinion. No, not that.

Freedom of religion??? ehhhhhh.

uhhh, what are Chicago values?

When I think of Chicago, I can only think of that Jennifer Hudson family murder and how her neighborhood is ravaged with violence, and has been, and the Obama’s lived there and picked a better neighborhood for themselves. But they didn’t actually DO anything about telling the youth or the gangs they were out of line or tell people to turn them in and put them in jail, like people in other communities do.

You all have it backwards. It’s not the guys in charge today that would be the murderers. They would be the victims. The murderers would be the backlash, the nationalists, the Christians. But only after they are goaded into a state of insanity. History repeating over and over again. Germany was driven insane by Rahm’s predecessors. South Africa was driven insane. Now it’s America’s turn.

pc on July 31, 2012 at 12:44 PM

That was rather vague. Would you care to explain what you are talking about?

I happen to disagree with the CEO of Chick-Fil-A on gay-marriage, but I wouldn’t have too many options if I only shopped at locations where the owners agree with all of my political beliefs. As long as he doesn’t actively discriminate against gay people [married or not] then I don’t see what the big fuss is about.

Fascism is right, unfortunately. People call Obama (and his crew like Rahm) Marxist but it’s not entirely true. Sure, Obama uses some Marxist lingo and leans toward Marx, but Obama didn’t create a socialist single payer healthcare regime, he created a fascist regime that was written in secret by insurance companies and other elite interests. The Obamacare/Romneycare mandates are not single payer, they are fascist. They are dictating under penalty of law that people have to buy stuff from their corporate cronies.

But whether America is hurdling over the cliff towards Marxism or Fascism, they’re both dangerous and the Chick-Fil-A issue is just the most recent example of all too many symptoms.

Yet … Many many Catholics are returning to church and he has found a way to offer refuge and communion to traditional Anglicans, much to the chagrin of the British. These new Clergy are breathing new life into the Church and so is their flock of New Catholics. Renewal indeed.

workingclass artist on July 31, 2012 at 12:46 PM

Yes, absolutely. I am very heartened to see that and I’m always taken by the fact that very often Catholic converts are often more faithful to the Church than some people who have been born into it.

One of my heroes is Cardinal Zen…pray for him & Chinese Catholics all the time.

They have courage and are doing now what the Irish did during the British persecution in Ireland. They meet in homes for mass and they conduct parish schools much like the Irish did with the Hedge Schools which kept Irish language,culture and Catholicism alive until the laws were lifted.

But our present “state” is the dictatorship of evil. “Oh, we’ve known that for a long time,” I hear you object, “and it isn’t necessary to bring that to our attention again.” But, I ask you, if you know that, why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals and drunks angry male ballerinas? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right – or rather, your moral duty – to eliminate this system? - Leaflet 3, The White Rose, 1942-1943.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Rahm Emanuel finds out that Chicagoans have values that aren’t his values.

It’s Christianity that is being devalued and mocked. Keep it up because we Christians have been through this before and yet here we are. These Chicago values folks aren’t going to understand what happened to them in November.

BTW. We have three Chick Fil A’s in our area. I haven’t been to the mall to see what is happening there, but the two that are out in the suburbs are enjoying more business than usual. Lines around the building at hours that aren’t the regular lunch and dinner hours. It’s a beautiful thing.

“The infamous Ermächtigungsgesetz [Enabling Act] (24.3.1933) was a law passed by the German parliament by which it essentially abolished itself. With this parliament effectively turned Germany into a Nazi dictatorship.Only a few days later the Catholic bishops issued a statement…

By this time Hitler had already had many opposition politicians arrested and others had found it advisable to go into hiding, yet in their declaration the bishops claimed “to be able to be confident that the general prohibitions and warnings need no longer be regarded as necessary”. With this they sealed the loyalty of the Catholics to the new “legitimate authorities”. The Protestant churches regarded the Nazis even more favourably.For example, in a confidential pastoral letter a church superintendant who was later vaunted as a member of the “church resistance” wrote in the same month, after the repression had begun, “There will be very few among us whose hearts do not rejoice at this [political] change”. For many Catholics, as well, the election victory of the Nazis amounted, as a Catholic newspaper put it, to “confirmation that Hitler was in the right”.

What the bishops overlooked is that the freedom and rights of the churches were inseparable from the political freedom of everyone. They seem not to have noticed that Church youth groups and clubs can only flourish if all other organisations are free to exist. They seemed to assume — in fact, perhaps even to wish — that the Catholic Church would be able to exist in freedom, even when all other social groups, the Socialists and Liberals, the Jews and Freethinkers, were eliminated. They understood freedom only as “freedom for the Truths of the Church”. The professor of church law, Josef Wenner, was not unusual in the way he greeted the “Emergency Measures Act of the President of the Reich for the Protection of the German People” (of 4.2.1933). This placed the country for practical purposes under martial law and allowed Hitler to arrest members of the opposition, including faithful Catholics. Yet he applauded it as an “energetic and purposeful measure of the government for national improvement” in the “struggle against the enemies of German culture and Christian morals”.
The German bishops affirmed in their “Common Pastoral Letter of the prelates of the Dioceses of Germany on the Church in the new Reich” of 3.6.1933 that:
”In our Holy Catholic Church the significance and value of authority is shown to particular advantage…. It is therefore by no means difficult for us as Catholics to appreciate the strong new emphasis on authority in the German state and to readily submit, as we denote it not only as a natural virtue, but as a supernatural one, as well…. To our great joy, the leading men of the new state have explicitly stated that they base themselves and their work on a Christian fundament. This is a solemn, public commitment that has earned the heartfelt thanks of all Catholics”.
By this point many of the Nazis’ political opponents of all kinds had been beaten up, had disappeared or were in “preventative detention”, and the first pogroms against the Jews and the Communists had already taken place. In other words, the bishops were in a position to know exactly what “the leading men of the German state” were capable of. According to them Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Socialists, Bolsheviks and “Liberal decadents” had no claim to humane treatment or to freedom and the protection of the law. In this matter the bishops and broad sections of Catholics, as well as the conservative Protestant Christians were in agreement with the Nazis. The bishops appear to have hoped that the Catholic Church could be strengthened by the destruction of her traditional opponents, because she was protected by theReichskonkordat, a pact that the Pope had signed with Hitler.”

-The German Churches before and after 1945, Johann Neuman, translation Muriel Fraser.

We are seeing Chicago values on full display in the Obama administration, and they are not American values that most of us grew up under. It is nearly unbelievable where political correctness has taken this country. I resent the left for foisting all this crap on us since the sixties. I’m starting to resent the right for not doing anything about it.

The real problem isn’t with Rahm or Mereno; at least they’ve made their taste for tyranny plain. The problem is that it’s a fair assumption that there are millions of Democrat elected officials and bureaucrats out there who aren’t saying a word. But every time one of them has to decide on a license, or performs a health inspection, or exercises their authority over us in any of a myriad ways, we have to seriously consider that if we exercise our right to free speech or religion and it comes to their attention, they can screw with our lives in a myriad of ways…. and send men with badges and guns in the dead of night on no-knock raids with the right to kill us on any pretext they can come up with.

And no one has to specifically tell them to do this in any given case, but once it’s clear who’s “the enemy”, the knights are loosed on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

When warrants as ridiculous such as these are issued and executed, there appears no other reason than because the company or individual at hand is being targeted, not because there is any sort of wrongdoing. As a company, Gibson is a legendary. They’ve done nothing wrong, except, apparently, deigning to have a Republican CEO.

The plot thickens, however.

One of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood.” In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson’s guitars.

Do you really think that any of Chicago’s myriad of inspectors will be unaware of Rahm’s remarks when they schedule and perform an inspection of a Chick-Fil-A…. or Farrakhan’s restaurant?

Also forgot to mention that Martin Guitars is headquartered in Nazareth, Pennsylvania while Gibson Guitars moved to Nashville in 1984 from Kalamazoo. Tennessee is a right to work state. Obviously, Michigan and Pennsylvania aren’t. You knew the forced-union BS also had to be in the mix somewhere.

Avgjo – I am sure the German people just didn’t wake up and support a man who murdered over 6M jews, gypsies, etc. In fact I know this to be the case.

This ^ exactly! It has to start somewhere and it usually does by getting people to depend on government so much that they will turn a blind eye to a violation of other’s rights. Gay marriage(or even hetero but especially gay marriage since it must be pushed by the state to be legitimized) isn’t about freedom from government.. It is really about what the government has to offer them in terms of bennies and their supporters are willing to turn a blind eye to other governmental tyranny as long as they get what they want.